| Just a short
paragraph about the newest modem transmission standard, expected to be introduced
later in 2000.
Currently, V.90 is the latest and fastest modem transmission standard approved by the ITU (a governing body that sets various standards, particularly in the telecommunications field). Technically V.90, allows for 56 kbit/s downstream (into your PC) and 33.6 kbit/s "upstream" (from your PC to your ISP). V.90 is almost universally supported by ISP's across the world and almost all modern modems are V.90 compatible (although compatibility between end user modems and ISP equipment has always been slightly variable). However, there is now an official ITU study group working on a proposal for an updated version of V.90, to be known as V.92 (if you're wondering what happened to V.91 - it was already assigned to a standard for "digital modems operating at data signalling rates of up to 64 000 bit/s for use on a 4-wire circuit switched connection and on leased point-to-point 4-wire digital circuits".....whatever that means!). The V.92 standard being proposed will offer these advantages over the existing V.90 standard :- 1. An "upstream" speed
of up to 44 kbit/s (i.e. about 30% faster than V.90). So....for a gamer there's nothing to get too excited about, although i would guess this might reduce the average gamers ping by perhaps 10-20 (leaving a decent modem pinging between 100-120 on a good day). Unfortunately, the downside is, as usual, that existing end user V.90 modems will have to upgraded (probably via new firmware software downloaded from your modem manufacturer) and upgrades to ISP's access ports. I would expect that most of the major modem manufacturers will provide suitable upgrades for free, although it is not clear how much this might cost an ISP and therefore how many will upgrade. The proposal is expected to be agreed upon at a meeting on June 30th 2000. If all goes well, i would expect V.92 modems to be available in the shops from perhaps September 2000 with firmware upgrades (hopefully) around the same time. Not to be confused with Powerplay (i.e. closed) servers on Wireplay.....this is actually the proposed name of a new Internet gaming standard. The idea was orignally proposed by Valve, those nice chaps who gave us Half-Life and TFC. In collaberation with Cisco Systems, they are working on some methods to vastly internet gaming performance. Valve claim that the objective is to provide "LAN-like" gaming performance to everyone, even using a dial-up connection. Technical details are almost non-existant at present. However, sometime in 2000 a selected US ISP will be used to prove the concept, before the standard becomes more widely available. What little information has been made available intimates that there will be standard versions, then special "PowerPlay" versions of games. This will probably result in patches being made available for some widely used games (almost certainly including Half Life, TFC and TF2 and very probably most games using the Quake engine and netcode). Presuming that the standard is proved successfull then new games will probably be "PowerPlay" compatable as they are released. It is anticipated that gamers will be able to play on "PowerPlay" compatable servers, even if they do not have a "PowerPlay" version of the game. Unfortunately, ISP's
will have to upgrade existing equipment in order to become "PowerPlay"
compatable. My guess is that Cisco's early involvement in the project
means that much of the standard is based around changing routers and ISP
access equipment so that they prioritise gaming data packets ahead of
"normal" data packets. However, this is the first serious attempt to specifically improve network gaming (although i suspect the methods used were originally initiated for far more serious use ;) It also seems clear that the project would be a major undertaking for an ISP to support "PowerPlay" and i further suspect that it might well signal the start of a split between gaming and non-gaming ISP's. More news when it arrives......... |